Sony Ericsson announced the new W960 Walkman phone, based on Symbian OS. The W960 is the fifth phone in the Sony Ericsson portfolio based on the Symbian OS v9 and UIQ 3.0 platform, following the P1, P990, M600i and W950. The phone, competing in the same sector as the Nokia N95 and the soon to come iPhone, seems to deliver few news and is in no way revolutionary. In fact, this device seems to lack all power functionality (such as GPS, TV or multi-touch-controls).

The W960 Walkman phone is a combination of slim UMTS phone and high performance media player. It can pack up to 8,000 songs (using eAAC+ format) and includes a Walkman player for “finger-touch navigation” around play lists. The 2.6″ display serves as a viewfinder for a 3.2 mega pixel camera and as a widescreen for watching videos.

Steve Litchfield at All about Symbian published episode 34 of the Smartphones Show. This time he presents a walk-through of the Grid, compares different web browser speeds and reviews ViewRanger. You can watch it here in Quicktime, subscribe here in iTunes or watch here on YouTube.

Error: Could not find the subgallery "Sony Ericsson/P1". Check your gallery comment and ensure the folder exists.The P1 is a new addition to the P Series smartphones (the 5th generation P-series smart phone) and is the most feature-rich yet. It has a touchscreen display with handwriting recognition, integrated QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi and supports VoIP. It supports a number of push email clients and uses the Opera Web browser. Its 3.2 megapixel camera has autofocus, business card scanner, and the P1 has stereo Bluetooth. The device comes with a 512Mb Memory Stick Micro card. With its tri-band GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 and UMTS 2100 radios, it is not optimized for U.S. networks. It is based on the Symbian operating system v9.1 and UIQ 3.0, an open platform that offers broad potential for multimedia applications from operators/carriers, content owners and third party developers. [Read more]